UO to replace parking lost to new buildings

Wednesday

Mar 31, 2010 at 12:01 AM

With more of its parking lots soon to become building sites, the University of Oregon is working to create more than 600 new parking spaces in the east and north campus areas.

Tentative plans the UO submitted to the city show parking being created in three locations: Moss Street between East 15th and East 17th avenues, the former state transportation department property at Walnut Street and Franklin Boulevard, and a city-owned parcel in the Riverfront Research Park. The Moss Street plan calls for the city to vacate and sell the two-block stretch of street to the UO so the university can install head-in parking on either side.

But to proceed, university officials must gain several approvals and work out purchases from the city. They also hope to get the blessing of area residents.

University officials will meet next week with residents of the adjoining Fairmount neighborhood to discuss the plans.

“The meeting is to start the conversation with the neighbors to let them know what we are thinking,” said Greg Rikhoff, the UO’s community relations director. “We’ve got predevelopment meetings with (city planners) coming up so all of the designs that we have right now are absolutely subject to change and modification as we learn more.”

The university is on a quest to make up for spaces that will be lost when construction begins this summer on a 445-bed residence hall near East 15th Avenue and Moss Street.

University policy requires the parking to be replaced, Rikhoff said.

The proposed new parking areas are within walking distance of the university’s Matthew Knight indoor sports arena, which is being constructed at 13th Avenue and Franklin Boulevard and is scheduled to open in December.

According to the university’s plans submitted to the city, the new parking areas would total 617 spaces, 19 more than the city’s multistory Overpark garage downtown.

Much of the new parking will be used for students, faculty and staff, Rikhoff said, but some could be used for arena parking too.

Under the plans, the university would create 214 spaces on Moss Street by adding head-in spaces on both sides of the street, except in front of the Moss Street Children’s Center at the corner of East 17th Avenue.

Even after the street is vacated and sold to the university, motorists still could use it as a through street, Rikhoff said.

The UO also wants to add 53 spaces in Villard Alley, between Villard and Moss streets.

The university would create 199 spaces on the former state transportation department property and 151 spaces near the Riverfront Research Park. All of the parking areas would include landscaping and tree islands.

Some of the new parking will be in front of the proposed residence hall. The university also has long-term plans to put another residence hall on the lot.

University officials briefed Fairmount Neighbors co-chairwomen Shellie Robertson and Susie Smith about the plans a couple of weeks ago.

The neighborhood group has not taken a position on the proposal, but Smith said she likes some of the elements.

Cars will be allowed to access the proposed parking lot on the former ODOT property from Walnut Street, not from busy East 15th Avenue, she said.

Traffic congestion has been an issue on 15th Avenue leading to Fairmount Boulevard, she said.

The parking lot on Riverfront Parkway, north of the major Agate Street entrance to the campus, should be “helpful to the neighborhood in alleviating traffic,” Smith said.

But the plan to create head-in parking on Moss Street “really needs to be vetted with the neighborhood,” she said.

In addition to getting City Council approval to sell the two blocks of Moss Street, the university would have to go through a site review process for some of the parking, obtain a Willamette Greenway permit for the research park site and possibly make stormwater system improvements and satisfy other requirements.

Also, the UO would need to buy the research park property from the city. The grassy 1.5-acre lot at Riverfront Parkway and Millrace Drive, is next to UO’s Urban Farm.

Acquisition talks between UO and city officials are “ongoing, but there is nothing conclusive yet,” Rikhoff said.

County tax records show the parcel with a market value of $1.17 million.

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